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A quote from me

For those of you waiting for a quote from yours truly:

"Incompetence will expand to fill the space allotted."

Ruiz Zings Intel

CNET News.com writer John G. Spooner interviews Advanced Micro Devices CEO Hector Ruiz on what the future holds in low-cost PC's:

Spooner:  "Then AMD isn't planning to do something like Intel Inside? "

Ruiz: "No. We prefer to be on our customers' side rather than on the inside. "

Now, how long has Ruiz had that little sound byte (sic) handy?

My Favorite TV Spots

"Beauty is its own reward. The best commercials can be pure little pieces along these lines."
World renowned television commercial director, Joe Pytka.


Joe Pytka has directed a number of well-known commercials including the This is your Brain on Drugs public service announcement, the Bartles and James Thank You for Your Support campaign, and the Ray Charles Uh-huh Pepsi spots. 

He also directed one of my favorite commercials of all time for Sony (Quicktime / Windows Media) about a middle-aged man who cashes-in to take a space flight (with help from Sony gadgets along the way).

My other favorite add is the Hummer commercial produced by Boston-based ad company, Modernista.  You can view all of the Hummer spots at their web site.

Good Pain & Bad Pain

"There is good pain and bad pain. You want the kind of pain you get from going running, not the kind you get from stepping on a nail."

Paul Graham  - Essayist, programmer, and programming language designer.  (Yes, that's two quotes by Paul Graham on my blog - if you're not reading his stuff by now, I highly recommend it.)

Paul Graham on Style

"When you're forced to be simple, you're forced to face the real problem. When you can't deliver ornament, you have to deliver substance."

Paul Graham  - Essayist, programmer, and programming language designer.

Female Literacy in the Arab World

According to the CIA fact-book, the literacy rate for females is higher than males in the Arab countries of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates:  85% to 81.4% and 81.7 to 76.1% respectively.

The large number of foreign illiterate male workers may account for this, but to put this into perspective, for Saudi Arabia the rate is male: 84.7% female: 70.8% and for Yemen it is male: 70.5%  female: 30%.

Chris Rock on Hypocrisy

"White people are the only people who profit from pain.   If black people owned Phillip Morris, cigarettes would be the most [expletive deleted] illegal thing ever.  You'd get 60 years for a pack of Newports! White man makes guns, nobody gives a [expletive deleted].  Black rapper says 'guns,' congressional hearing."

Chris Rock, from his ‘Never Scared’ tour, 2004

Computer Programs

"Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute."   (Harold Abelson, et al, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs)

The United States of China

In China, more than 300 million people are studying English, which is more than the number of Americans who speak it.

The Week, Janury 14, 2005

The Real Original Sins

"There are two cardinal sins from which all the others spring:  impatience and laziness."

Franz Kafka, quoted in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette